Begun in 2005 for men (and in 2007 for women), New Horizons is an intensive eight-week course that aims to prepare inmates for their life outside. Skills like CPR are taught alongside financial planning.

“We’re conducting an evaluation of what we’re doing right now,” says UVA professor and clinical psychologist Ann Loper, who has dedicated her career to studying the effects of prison on inmates. “What kind of things are we doing that are helpful, and what kind of people does it help?”

Loper and her students also taught a parenting skills class for the New Horizons students who just graduated. Now, she is preoccupied with collecting the initial information on departing inmates. While Loper currently has 50 people in the nascent study, she is hoping to follow at least 200, but says the jail poses unique challenges. Because it is regional, there is a transitory population. Some people may only be there for a few days, some a few months, others years.

As a result, she describes the study as an “evaluation,” one that will track three different groups of prisoners: those who have had the re-entry program; those whose sentence is too short for New Horizons; and a third class who refused any services at all. Loper will conduct regular followups over the next year, beginning July 1.

Psychology Professor Ann Loper consults with Patricia L. Smith, executive director of OAR. The two are collaborating on a study of former Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail inmates.

“We’ll call them up,” she says, “and ask if there’s anything you learned that has helped you.” By doing so, Loper and her team will be able to tailor the program to inmates and evaluate how well the program is working.

At this point, New Horizons is largely taught by volunteers—so far, neither the jail nor OAR have sought state or local funding. Even though the idea of equipping outgoing prisoners with life skills seems logical, the jail’s program is actually a little controversial.

“Lots of prisons act as warehouses,” says Carew, a 10-year veteran of OAR. He says that the pre- and post-release programs are a progressive alternative to what most of the states’ correctional facilities offer.

“It’s more about how somebody is going to be three years from now than whether they’ve peed in a cup,” he says, adding that they are lucky to be in Charlottesville where so many services (like Region Ten) are available. “We want you to walk out a better person.”

The Lawn was illuminated in soft white candlelight last night as thousands of community members retraced the steps of the August 11 white nationalist tiki torch march from the University of Virginia’s Nameless Field to the Rotunda. Their message was of love and peace, and taking back what

It was the day that kept getting worse. The weekend from hell. Like many of you, C-VILLE Weekly is still processing Saturday’s violation from ill-intentioned visitors with antiquated notions who now believe it’s okay to say in broad daylight what they’ve only uttered in the nether regions of

Droves of community members clothed in shades of purple poured into the Paramount Theater August 16 to remember Heather Heyer, a local activist and paralegal who lost her life to what some have called an act of domestic terror the weekend before. “They tried to kill my child to shut her up.

Two days after he plowed into a group of peaceful counterprotesters with his car, white nationalist James Alex Fields Jr. appeared via webcam in Charlottesville General District Court Monday morning. The Maumee, Ohio, man, 20, is charged with second-degree murder, three counts of malicious

A month ago during the July 8 KKK rally, police were accused of overreacting and escalating things when they deployed tear gas on protesters at an event that was already breaking up. At the August 12 Unite the Right rally, they faced the opposite complaint: That they stood and watched assaults

Photos taken during the Unite the Right rally and counterprotest at Emancipation Park, as well as the alt-right gathering at McIntire Park, and demonstrations at Justice Park and the Downtown Mall area today. Photos by Eze Amos, Lisa Provence, Jessica Luck, Hawkins Dale and Aaron Cohen.

A 32-year-old woman died following today’s long-anticipated white nationalist assembly in Emancipation Park, and two Virginia State Police pilots perished in a crash late in the afternoon near the Bellair neighborhood. The Unite the Right rally erupted in violence and was shut down before it

At a press conference today, Charlottesville police Captain Victor Mitchell estimated there would be between 2,000 and 6,000 people here on Saturday and said many downtown streets and sidewalks will be closed for the upcoming Unite the Right rally Mitchell is incident commander for both

First the Loyal White Knights of the KKK July 8 and now the Unite the Right rally August 12. Charlottesville has become quite the magnet for white nationalists since City Council voted in April to remove a statue of General Robert E. Lee and rename two Confederate general-monikered parks. Oh,

The Rutherford Institute and the ACLU of Virginia have given the city of Charlottesville until 12pm today to respond to their letter demanding city leaders allow Jason Kessler to hold his August 12 Unite the Right rally in Emancipation Park. When city manager Maurice Jones announced August 7

Despite the history of a failed wind farm in Highland County, a local renewable energy firm is on track to build the first one in Virginia. Apex Clean Energy, which has 167 employees in Charlottesville, received a permit from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality in March to build

Miss out on a week of Albemarle County happenings? On August 2 the Board of Supervisors voted to only require a business license for those making at least $25,000 a year, instead of the previous $5,000 threshold. They’ve requested a new entrance for the proposed Hedgerow Park, and will soon ask

Was the four-legged visitor weeks early for its move-in date? Community members took to social media to share photos of a black bear flouncing around UVA Grounds August 1. A state wildlife biologist tranquilized it outside the Children’s Hospital, loaded it into a truck, and, after the drug

Ludwig Kuttner, owner of the IX complex, threatened last week to stop the community events held at the Art Park because its city land assessment went up 400 percent. And on August 7, the Board of Equalization said it was affirming the city’s valuation. At an August 1 board hearing, Kuttner

Days before the August 12 Unite the Right rally, City Manager Maurice Jones said the city would issue organizer Jason Kessler a permit—for McIntire Park, not for Emancipation Park, the site formerly known as Lee Park where he requested to protest the removal of the statue of General Robert E.

The man who was convicted of abduction with intent to defile and who spent two-and-a-half years in jail before the alleged victim’s story fell apart filed suit July 14 against the former commonwealth’s attorney who prosecuted him. Mark Weiner, now living in Maryland, filed a civil lawsuit in

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission released its final environmental impact statement for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline July 21, and it said the proposed 600-mile, $5.5 billion natural gas pipeline will have a “less than significant” impact on the environment. “The [final environmental

Curtain call Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and actor Sam Shepard, author of Buried Child, died July 27 from complications related to Lou Gehrig’s disease, according to a family member. Shepard lived with actress Jessica Lange on a farm near Scottsville for 10 years until the mid-’90s. He

As Charlottesville braces for an influx of alt-white nationalists, 43 business owners have demanded the city enforce its regulations for special events, pastors are calling for 1,000 faithful around the nation to stand with them and the Central Library has announced it will close August 12 for

When Charles Dickens—the Victorian era’s greatest novelist—traveled through America via stagecoach in 1842, he found the experience absolutely abysmal. The coaches, he wrote, had “never been cleaned since they were first built,” and because they lacked springs, the slightest jolt was enough to